Orange County Website Design

It’s that time of year again where I like to look back on the past year and reflect on the lessons I’ve learned as well as to say thank you to both current and new clients.

2011 has been a great year, but it was also a tough year because I lost my sister in November after a long illness. When you experience a loss like this, you look at life differently and you realize that we really must make an effort to enjoy each day and be grateful for many things in our lives.

I am infinitely grateful for having the opportunity to do what I do. I started Zel Creative around 2008, and from very small beginnings it has grown and become a big part of my life. I am so thankful for the continued support of both new and returning clients, and if I’ve worked on a project of yours this past year, know that I truly appreciate your business. Finding something you love to do, and being able to make money doing it, is a tremendous blessing.

One of the great things about my business is that I can run it from almost anywhere in the world. All I need is an internet connection and my MacBook Pro. For the last 3 months of the year, I decided to spend time with my family in South Africa and be with my sister during her final few months with us. I have been able to reconnect with old friends who I had not seen in many years, and have also spent quality time with my family. I am so grateful for this opportunity.

As to some lessons I’ve learned this year, there are really just three important ones:

• Spend quality time with those who matter. It’s so easy to get caught up in the clamor of life, but I’ve learned how important it is to take time out not only for ourselves, but also to spend quality time with people we love and who are important to us. Achieving a good balance in our lives between work and relaxation is important because a year seems to go by so quickly.
• Do what you love. I’ve said this before and it continues to ring true. For many years, I wasn’t doing what inspires me, and it had a negative impact on many areas of my life. When I finally began doing something that I’m passionate about and that I love to do, so many things changed for the better.
• Be grateful. There can be many things in life to worry about and bring us down, and it’s really easy to spend our time focusing on those things. Over the past few years, I’ve learned to focus on the blessings in life and be grateful for them.

Let’s begin 2012 with excitement and energy over what the year will bring us. There are many things to be grateful for and let us focus on those things. Thank you again for your business during this year, and I can’t wait to continue doing what I do in 2012!

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For web developers, making sites look good in all browsers can be a challenge. Or, let me rephrase that. Making sites look good in Internet Explorer is a challenge!

In all modern web browsers, and I’m referring to Firefox, Chrome, Safari and let’s say Opera, for the most part, websites will look good and render pretty much the same. They’re good modern browsers that are in constant development.

Internet Explorer on the other hand has been nothing but trouble for web developers. Up until IE9, the browser has proven to be entirely inept at keeping pace with web standards. Fortunately, Microsoft themselves have launched an effort to at least retire IE6 once and for all. IE7 and even IE8 should also follow suit as these too have numerous issues related to web standards.

In my business, I don’t support IE6 at all, unless a client specifically requests it, and to this point, no one has. I do make efforts to make sure the site looks okay in IE7 and IE8 though, as there are still users out there who run these versions of IE. It would be great if these too were phased out.

Browser updates should take place like Google Chrome. That browser is automatically updated in the background so that users always have the latest version. Firefox will soon be adopting this same philosophy from what I’ve been reading.

Zel Creative’s Browser Stats

From time to time, I take a look at the browser statistics for the visitors to my site. I like to know who my audience is in relation to the browsers they use. It says a lot about the type of clients I end up working with.

I thought I’d share some of the latest stats, and I must say, I’m really pleased to see that the vast majority of the visitors to zelcreative.com are using the very latest, modern browsers. In fact, I have no visitors using IE6 or IE7.

Depending on the date range I use, the top browser will vary between the big three, being Firefox, Safari and Chrome.

Are You Running The Latest Version of a Modern Browser?

Making sure you have a good browser in which to view websites is not just going to make the life of your web designer easier, but it will vastly improve your web browsing experience, and your security online. Web technologies continue to evolve, and it’s only the best browsers that will embrace these advancements and incorporate them into the platform.

Sites like Browse Happy are there to spotlight the latest versions of all modern web browsers and encourage visitors to update. If you aren’t running one of these, I’d encourage you to update right away.

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I am often asked by clients how they should best optimize their posts so they rank well in the organic search results. Search engine optimization is a big topic and can become a little overwhelming for many people. Over the years through trial and error, and learning from others in the business, I was able to establish a set of common guidelines that should be considered when creating your WordPress posts.

Using these basic concepts, I have been able to get posts ranked within the top 3 search results for specific keyphrases. Although I believe you should focus your efforts on creating fresh and engaging content, rather than how to make your posts hit #1 for a given keyphrase, it can’t hurt to at least be aware of these rules.

I found myself answering the same questions with the same answers over and over, so I ended up writing a post about it which was published on the DIYthemes blog. So when asked, I mostly refer people to that post. It’s an important read and covers the basic, beginner concepts that you should be aware of. In addition to this post, there are others on the site that are also very useful.

Here are links to the articles:

• Beginner WordPress SEO
• WordPress SEO for Everybody

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I am a big fan of the 70′s British TV show Fawlty Towers. I remember watching episodes as a kid which we’d rent from the video store down the road. Back then the video format of choice was Betamax!

Having purchased the complete DVD set a few years back, I’ve now re-watched the episodes countless times. There’s certainly an element of nostalgia for me, but at the same time, it’s a brilliantly funny, timeless classic that is as good now as it was back then. An absolute gem.

By the way, there’s a point to all this, so keep reading.

In the show there’s a character named Mr. O’Reilly who is the local builder. The problem is that he’s entirely incompetent at what he does, but Basil Fawlty insists on hiring him for certain building projects at the hotel. Every time he does, it’s a complete disaster. For example, Basil hires him to build a wall in the garden and O’Reilly gets as far as delivering the bricks, but after months go by, he still hasn’t gone back to actually cement them together and build the wall.

Basil’s rationale for continuing to hire him is that he’s ‘cheap.’ This drives his wife Sybil absolutely nuts because she simply cannot tolerate the shoddy workmanship and is willing to spend a little more money for a professional builder; but of course Basil won’t have any of it. All he’s interested in is saving a buck, and consequences be damned.

The last straw is when O’Reilly is called in to install a new door and close off another one. It’s in the episode called ‘The Builders.’ Of course, it becomes a complete train wreck when his crew ends up removing a door that was supposed to stay, and building a new doorway where there wasn’t meant to be one. When Sybil finds out, she goes ballistic!

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